Title

Creator

Preview

Creation Date

Fall 11-1-2006

Description

A small trefoil knot whose cross-section is a hypocycloid, the curve made by a point on a circle rolling without slipping inside another circle with radius three times the radius of the rolling inner circle. This hypocycloid looks like a concave triangle, so there are three sides going around the trefoil knot, but they twist, so that one side runs into the next one, and they make just one side going three times around the knot. The base was made with Oregon black walnut.

Comments

In order to make the cross-section and keep it uniform, 140 thin wax hypocycloids were made by using a custom made cookie cutter, and they were strung on a guiding bronze wire, which had been bent into the trefoid knot. They were then arranged to twist around evenly, and then smoothed into a continuous surface by adding wax and partially melting the surface. To display the hypocycloid trefoil knot and allow it to sound when struck, a base made from a piece of the Oregon black walnut was attached. It is suspended from a parabolic arc of bronze rod in such a way that it can easily be removed for examination, but when hanging, it can be struck by a short bronze rod which makes it ring like a bell. So in a sense this is also a sound sculpture.